Pages

Friday, January 31, 2014

Here is a manicure I did to show off 12th Man team spirit for the Superbowl bound Seattle Seahawks! Yes, I live in 49er country, but I am from Washington State.

I used Orly Fresh and OPI Ogre The Top Blue for the base colors, then topped most of the nails with my Sonoma Nail Art glitter 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. There are bottles of this color available in my etsy store right now! On my ring finger, I used acrylic paint to freehand a Seahawks logo.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

As my young niece Molly yelled at her 3rd birthday party, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE!" Today I am wearing nails to celebrate my 41st birthday. I thought about something with balloons, or cupcakes, or stars, but they didn't seem right. So instead, I grabbed my Konad Coraline stamping plates and did THIS:

I love the pose of this image. It's got ATTITUDE. and if you are painting nail art on your nails with goofy characters, you gotta have attitude. I painted my nails with Love and Beauty Glow In The Dark polish in Neon Pink (the color is rather chameleon like... soft pink in indoor light, neon pink outdoors), then used the decal technique to create the image on my ring finger.

First I stamped this image from Konad Coraline plate CO4 using Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris. Then I let the image dry on the stamper for 5 minutes, before coloring it in with thinned down acrylic paints. After that paint had set, I coated the image with Sally Hansen No Chip Acrylic Top Coat and let it dry for about 30 minutes. I then gently peeled it from the stamper and applied it to my nail, pressing it down to conform to my nail. Then I top coated with Seche Vite. Coraline looks like she is saying, "Oh snap, girlfriend."

And yes, these nails DO glow in the dark, however my camera sucks at taking pictures of glow in the dark stuff, so this was the best I could get. :)

Monday, January 27, 2014

Ok, so I am not really reinventing the Half Moon mani, but I did try something I have never done before and I did it using only nail polish, no acrylic paints, which is usually what I would reach for with something like this.

I present the Apple Half Moon Manicure! Yes, it is very simple but I like the way it turned out. I used Essie Adore-A-Ball as my base color, then added a tiny half moon of Sinful Colors Innocent, a beautiful apple green colored polish. I modeled this after the Sebastopol Gravenstein Apple, which has lovely red, green, yellow, and white stripes along its skin. Using my nail art brush and tiny amounts of various other nail polishes, I added the stripes. I think I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, OPI Big Hair Big Nails, and Orly Fresh for the stripes.

Next I mixed a tiny bit of Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris with the Sinful Color Innocent green shade. Again using my tiny nail art brush, I carefully applied it to the top of the apple to give the impression of shading where the stem sits. Then I mixed Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris together with OPI San Tan-tonio to make the stem. I added highlights to the top of the apple using Sinful Colors Snow Me White mixed with Innocent, and also a tiny bit of pure Snow Me White. I topped it with Seche Vite quick drying top coat.

I think this is a fun, unexpected way to wear a half moon manicure. I was inspired to try this reinvention manicure by The Lacquer Legion. Each month there will be a new theme for a nail challenge. This one was really fun! Be sure to check out The Lacquer Legion on facebook.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

This is a manicure I did for a challenge in a stamping group. It uses 3 (well, actually 4) different shades of purple polish. And since I love hand painting art, I added a fun little character. Who is more purple than Grimace? Well, maybe a certain dinosaur, but we don't need to bring him up, do we?!

Here are my Grimace Nails! What the heck is Grimace anyway?! Scary giant triangle who likes milkshakes. Thanks for the heebie jeebies, McDonalds!

First I painted my nails with OPI Rumples Wiggin'. Then I used a gradient technique (see the Nailasaurus for a great tutorial on this technique) to add two more shades of purple (Essie DJ Play That Song, and Lime Crime Lavendairy). My base color was not quite dry, so I kind of messed up my index finger. Oops.

Then I used Nailz Craze plate NC02 to add the fun swirlies. I stamped with OPI Funky Dunkey. So if you are counting along at home, that is the 4th purple. And I used acrylic paints to hand paint the Grimace on my ring finger.

I hope to do a lot more stamping as I have an event coming up soon that I can't wait to share with you! I've got to get my skills back up!

And this is my 140th post, so that means another donation to Women's Recovery Services. Every twenty posts, I like to make a donation to help my community. Women's Recovery Services helps women get back on their feet after dealing with addiction. I encourage you to find ways to give back with your blog!